An Evening with Ruskin Bond

Posted on June 19, 2018 by Ghoomophiro

Ruskin Bond loves India and the Indians like anything. The world-renowned author has lived in India for a better part of his life. Mussoorie happens to be the place where he is having a beautiful house and many of his short stories have the place as the background. Spending a beautiful evening with Mr. Bond at his house was nothing more than a treat. We have waited for that moment for a long time and when we finally got the chance, it felt like a dream. He was our childhood hero and Mussoorie was one of those places that we always wanted to visit.

Now Mussoorie is one place that has always been an enigma to us. Ever since we remember, we have heard a lot about the place. We had no idea what kind of seductress this hill station located at about 7000 feet above the sea level is. Maybe, this was the inner fan inside us who always thought that Ruskin Bond was the greatest writer of all times and that he was almost always associated with Mussoorie. We didn’t really know what it was, but it was something special.

Known as the Queen of hills, it makes you fall in love with it at the very first sight. A soon as we got out of my car we knew we were in for something special.

And that special thing was mostly the excitement of meeting our childhood hero. That temptation got turned a little bit on the other side, where the eternal beauty of the hill station lies. Located at a distance of about 35 kilometres from Dehradoon, one other beauty of a place, Mussoorie is hauntingly beautiful.

The majestic view of the Shivalik range in all its grandeur, the greenery on the hill and the rich variety of flora and fauna captivated my senses. The second highest peak in the city, the Gun Hill is also there making it all look dreamier than anything. Standing on the top of the hill, you get a great view of the entire valley along with the very famous Doon school. At a distance of about 6 kilometres from the place is a marvel of nature locally known as Jharipani falls.

There are so many things in and around that we will probably fall short of the words while describing the place and do justice to it.

Ruskin Bond has made the city what it is today, in our imagination at least. It is said that about half of the international visitors who come to the place are in some way inspired by Ruskin Bond and the words that he has written while describing the place

Now was the time when we had to finally meet the man himself, Mr. Bond. He resides in a lovely cottage called Ivy Cottage. We climbed the stairs and stood there on the first floor and as he answered the knock on the door, we were awestruck. We had a wonderful evening with the man and then we took a walk around the town and this was something we had never even dreamed of, having a walk with this beautiful man on probably the most beautiful place on the entire planet.